From partisanship to pathology

Charles Krauthammer is a trained psychiatrist. When he diagnoses mental illness, the diagnosis carries some weight. His column today on Senator Kennedy’s latest comments on President Bush and the war (“This whole thing was a fraud”) therefore warrants special consideration: “From partisanship to pathology.”
Krauthammer believes that Kennedy’s comments reflect a wider phenomenon within the Democratic party: “Kennedy’s rant reflects the Democrats’ blinding Bush-hatred, and marks its passage from partisanship to pathology.” If this is accurate, Jonathan Chait’s New Republic article represents a dramatic case study in the pathology.